Names and faces

— First came the royal engagement. Now - 10 days later - the first book. William and Kate: A Royal Love Story, by The Sun newspaper’s royal reporter James Clench was published in Britain on Friday, the first in a slew of new titles about the relationship between Prince William and Kate Middleton that publishers hope will set cash registers chirping in the months before their April 29 wedding at Westminster Abbey. Published by HarperCollins and The Sun - both owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. - the book is scattered with photos by Arthur Edwards, the paper’s longserving royal photographer.It charts the romance between “the boy who would one day be king” and “the middle-class girl who had harbored a crushon him since her school days.” The book claims that William’s nickname for Kate was Babykins, while she called him Big Willie. Publication comes at the start of the lucrative Christmas book-buying season.

A Thanksgiving Daychimney fire has ravaged part of the Nevada home of former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss .The 44-year-old Fleiss told KVVU-TV she was at the house in Pahrump, west of Last Vegas, when the fire broke out, but was unharmed. KVVU-TV reported the fire started in a chimney that lacked a “spark arrester,” a device that prevents sparks from escaping the fireplace. It’s unclear how much damage the house sustained, but a video released by celebrity website TMZ shows flames flowing from the roof. Fleiss once ran a high-priced Los Angeles prostitution ring providing models-turned-prostitutes to wealthy clients.

Front Section, Pages 2 on 11/27/2010

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